True Sportsmanship

[Ryno84MVP]

Over the weekend a young wrestler from a Middle School in Tennessee did something that a lot of kids his age would not think about doing. He intentionally lost a match, but unintentionally won the hearts of anyone that watches his actions in the video.

http://97rockonline.com/tennessee-middle-school-wrestler-shows-true-sportsmanship-video/

[Fresno Bob]

very nice

[Gregg]

Class act by the young man.

With tears in my eyes for the kindness shown, I must confess I wonder why the opposing coach would allow or send out a boy so unable to wrestle. It is one thing to allow him to be a manager or helper, it is quite another to have him wrestle. I am not there or close to the situation, but I am not sure that the coach did the right thing. If there was audio that explained it, I did not hear it. The hot spot that I am in is noisy.

[virgonomic]

I don't really like it. Does the physically challenged kid actually feel good about the fact that another kid jobbed for him in a wrestling match? If so, great. Why not find a talent he is good at or can succeed at without having someone else roll over for him?

[B-Fly]

I don't really like it. Does the physically challenged kid actually feel good about the fact that another kid jobbed for him in a wrestling match? If so, great. Why not find a talent he is good at or can succeed at without having someone else roll over for him?

Is this kid only physically challenged, or is he mentally challenged as well? It's hard to read from the video. If he's mentally challenged then, yes, maybe this brings him joy the way letting your four-year-old beat you in arm wrestling might bring him joy. If he's just physically challenged then I can't imagine he'd be getting much of anything out of this. But I suspect the coach probably deserves the benefit of the doubt here; he obviously knows the kid better than we do.

[DJBeasties]

I don't know what I think of this. I have slight cerebral palsy on my left side and though i am relatively "normal", most of my motor function is limited to gross motor skills. I am blessed to be OK everywhere else so what B-Fly is saying I agree with. When I was a kid people were usually very mean to me. OR, they were super nice and let me win . YAY! I won a race that was staged and kids deliberately let me win. You get nothing out of that except shame. I do agree that this coach hopefully knows best, but for me (and I am nowhere anything like the boy in the video) it was worth nothing.

[TranaGreg]

I don't know the background either but I equated it to the guy who got beaned in the head & got an AB last fall in the majors - was it Miami? (striking out on three pitches) ... obviously it wasn't done for competetiveness but just as a nice gesture, nothing more.

[Fresno Bob]

From the looks of that kid, just getting out of his power chair and on to the mat would be the victory

[DJBeasties]

But yes, this was a nice gesture and the kid who did it will be a good adult. It's a good thing.

[heyelander]

Here's an article on this... I was skeptical at first but everyone involved seemed to have a great attitude about it so I was down with this the whole way until the very end where they said it wasn't going to be a one time thing...

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20121204/NEWS/312040042/Wrestling-debut-video-disabled-Brentwood-student-goes-viral

[senorsheep]

I don't really like it. Does the physically challenged kid actually feel good about the fact that another kid jobbed for him in a wrestling match? If so, great. Why not find a talent he is good at or can succeed at without having someone else roll over for him?

I don't know what I think of this. I have slight cerebral palsy on my left side and though i am relatively "normal", most of my motor function is limited to gross motor skills. I am blessed to be OK everywhere else so what B-Fly is saying I agree with. When I was a kid people were usually very mean to me. OR, they were super nice and let me win . YAY! I won a race that was staged and kids deliberately let me win. You get nothing out of that except shame. I do agree that this coach hopefully knows best, but for me (and I am nowhere anything like the boy in the video) it was worth nothing.

Interesting viewpoints. My softball team struggles with a similar dilemma every year when we face our annual rivals Victory Church. Their catcher George is mentally impaired (mild Downs Syndrome). To give you an idea of his physical ability, George usually makes contact with the ball on maybe one out of every three or four swings, and when he does, it's typically a foul at the plate or a weak dribbler.

My backup pitcher likes to walk George once per game in a non-critical game situation so he can feel good about getting on base. I don't feel comfortable doing that - I appreciate the motive, but it feels dishonest to me. In my mind, despite his impairment, George is still a man, and I feel that if he wants to be out there playing and competing with other men, then I owe it to him to treat him like the other guys. I feel like I'm according him respect this way, and I believe respect elevates him more than does pity. That said, I do take it a little easier on him in the way I pitch to him - no big curves or knuckleballs, no deception, I just groove it down the middle to him, and if he hits it, he hits it. So far as I can tell, he gets as much (or more) satisfaction making contact with the ball than he does getting an intentional walk. I'm not sure what he actually perceives about the whole situation, but he obviously loves being out on the ballfield and taking his cuts.

As for the thread subject, it's a great story, and I appreciate the good intentions surrounding this match, but I hope they're really not planning on making an ongoing farce of their wrestling program. I don't see how that does the kid any good in the long term.

[johnnya24]

If it was kids wish to win a wrestling match or something, it's a nice thing. But I agree with Heye ... it's pretty grotesque to be doing this again and again. As a one off gesture it's cool ... but it seems grotesque to be milking this for publicity after it went viral.

[DJBeasties]

On my softball team, they treat my like nothing is wrong. I probably just get a little more forgiveness in my mistakes than others -- considering I have to catch the ball with my right hand and then take the glove off and throw it with my right hand. Jim Abbott style!

SenorSheep, I agree with you esp if he is cognizant of what's going on.